Photochemistry with Late Transition Metal Complexes

Purdue University, West Lafayette IN

Investigators

Abstract

David McMillan of Purdue University is supported by the Inorganic, Bioinorganic, and Organometallic Chemistry Program to conduct research on photochemistry of complexes of late transition elements and DNA. The proposed research will use photochemical methods to gain understanding of binding of late transition metal porphyrin complexes to DNA and to devise methods to direct that binding. The research will also develop porphyrin and polypyridine complexes of late transition series elements as novel photosensitive probes for technologically important uses. Many late transition series complexes feature open coordination positions. The chemical flexibility engendered by such vacancies can be exploited to gain otherwise unattainable understanding of interactions between metallic species and DNA. Photochemical processes involving complexes of late transition metals with DNA have considerable potential for producing new agents for photodynamic therapy, as well as in clarifying factors influencing the binding of metallic species to DNA.